Eastern men’s tennis head north this weekend to play Chicago State before heading south for a match with Saint Louis at a neutral site.

The Panthers look for their first victory against a struggling Cougars team with a 2-11 record early on this season.

“We have had a strong week so far and look forward to getting back to competing this weekend,” Coach Eric Stark said.

Eastern is one of three matchups Chicago State has in the next four days. The Cougars face Saint Francis University and North Central on Thursday, which leaves them one day to prepare for the Panthers.

The Cougars are 1-5 in back-to-back matches so far this season with their last set of back-to-back matches on February 13-15.

“Chicago St. has played a tough schedule just like us, we are going to go in there this weekend and fight hard,” Stark said.

Chicago State’s last win was on their home courts against Western Illinois back on February 15, which was the only victory from their back-to-back matches. The Cougars have compiled a three-game losing streak since that victory.

Meanwhile, Eastern is just trying to get their first win of the season before their conference season starts.

The Panthers will drive to Danville for a neutral-site matchup the next day against Saint Louis.

The match against the Billikens (2-4) was suppose to be the last non-conference match of the season before the Panthers match with Southern Illinois was cancelled.

Chicago State and Saint Louis both have a few matchups before their match on Sunday because of weather cancellations.

The Billikens, who are coming off a 7-0 loss to Southern Illinois on Wednesday, will be back in action Friday as they take on Missouri Baptist and Northern Illinois on Saturday.

Saint Louis started their season in late January and have only played against six different schools. The Billikens are 0-2 in back-to-back matches so far after losing to Creighton and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in their first two matches of the season.

“We are looking forward to playing back-to-back to tune up for what an Ohio Valley Conference weekend will be,” Stark said.

The Panthers will take on the Cougars from Chicago State at 4 p.m. Saturday at Homewood-Flossmoor Racquet Club and Saint Louis at Danville Tennis Center at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

“We don’t see wins and losses, if we do everything we are supposed to we will set ourselves up to be successful,” he said.

Cody Delmendo can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].